Dublin-based Fitzgerald, Kavanagh and Partners had plenty of reasons to celebrate in 2015 after finishing in first place in both the ‘Architectural Firm of the Year’ and ‘Fit Out Project of the Year’ awards. Director Colm Redmond tells us the secrets of their success…
The Irish Construction Industry Awards recognise, encourage and celebrate original and innovative contractors, businesses, teams, consultants and projects that demonstrate excellence in the built environment.
They are designed to encourage those within the sector to constantly raise the bar, to innovate and maintain their commitment to achieving excellence.
Fitzgerald, Kavanagh and Partners tick all those boxes so they were an obvious choice for the ‘Architectural Firm of the Year’ award. Open to all Irish registered architectural firms, the award recognises the most outstanding architects in Ireland.
No strangers to award success, FKP gained further industry recognition when walking away with the ‘Fit Out Project of the Year’ accolade for their exemplary work on the renovation of St Mel’s Cathedral, Longford.
On Thursday, November 5th last at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Dublin, the cream of Ireland’s fit out sector were recognised and celebrated in front of an audience of over 650 industry professionals.
21 prestigious trophies were presented to the very best leaders and organisations within Ireland’s fit out industry and director Colm Redmond accepted the top gong on behalf of Fitzgerald, Kavanagh and Partners.
“We don’t put ourselves forward for awards lightly,” explained Colm. “We only submit for awards when we’re happy with the product that we produce and the client is happy. We have to have full confidence in it and we did have that when it came to St Mel’s Cathedral.”
St. Mel’s Cathedral Longford, a protected structure, was severely damaged by a fire on the 25th of December 2009 in which the interior of the building together with the roof and timber floors were completely destroyed.
The project aim was to restore the Cathedral to its former glory whilst developing a liturgical setting fitting of a Cathedral for the 21st century. The Cathedral re-opened to the public on Saturday 20th December 2014, followed by a live broadcast of the Christmas Day Mass on RTE One.
“St Mel’s Cathedral was one of the biggest conservation projections in Europe with a budget of €26m. It was quite unique insofar as practically the entire building was destroyed by fire. All that remained were the external walls and internal arches.
“It was an incredible structural engineering feat and everyone involved worked very much together as a team. It was a team focussed project and the end product is a great testament to the skills available in Ireland.
“At the moment we’re seeing a resurgence of traditional skills and materials that were used in historical buildings and it’s testimony to the skills in Ireland that we didn’t have to go overseas looking to bring labour in.”
Established in 1995, FKP Architects is a Dublin-based firm practicing architecture and project management. Their portfolio encompasses work of all scales with extensive experience in the design of educational, residential and commercial buildings.
FKP has special expertise in Universal Design and conservation, including Grade I Conservation Accreditation from the RIAI.
FKP strive to balance issues which confront all projects – site, programme, design, economics – and coalesce them into a clear, elegant, comprehensive whole.
This holistic sensibility informs the firm’s practice methodology, teams are empowered with shared responsibility for project performance at all levels, both aesthetic and financial.
The hard work and dedication of the 17 employees on the company’s payroll were key ingredients in their winning formula, according to Colm.
“We are very focussed on developing the staff we have here to help them achieve their true potential and the awards are a great motivator in that regard.
“It’s amazing the effect success has on the morale in a company. It gives everyone a lift, everyone has a spring in their step and the positive effect it has on individuals in an organisation shouldn’t be underestimated.”
As the economic recovery continues to gather pace, Colm and his colleagues at FKP have detected some green shoots but, at the same time, he sounds a note of caution.
“We are busy and there’s definitely more interest out there but how that transfers into jobs and projects on site remains to be seen. Things are still a bit delicate in my opinion. People want to do projects but funding is an issue and finance is still hard to come by.
“We have a mix of conservation and mixed retail projects on the go at the minute while we’ve been the architects for the Peter McVerry Trust for the past 15 years. We know what they want and they know we can deliver.
“We are very much a client focussed firm. We always try to understand what the client is looking for, what they need and how their resources can be best utilized to deliver the project. We believe if we do our job properly and the clients are happy, we’ll get more jobs.”
Fitzgerald, Kavanagh and Partners
71 Lower Baggot Street,
Dublin 2
Ireland
Tel: + 353 1 676 4128
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.fkp.ie
Taken from Building Ireland magazine, Spring 2016, Vol 2, No 1
